These Books, By Their Covers

"It is only when the mind and character slumber that the dress can be seen."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let me just say first that this post is in fact a reactionary one of a fellow blogger's - one about the hypocrisy of a health professional who indulges in the habit of smoking, and her abhorrence of the practice. I will address this (and by association, the issue of drinking as well), and broadly, on the human practice of giving values to things which are intrinsically worthless.

We humans are pattern-seeking creatures, constantly trying to make sense of this world and to decode the causality laws which govern our society - or as I often call it, the illusion of causality laws. And let's face it; we have been horrible at it. There was a time when we thought epileptics were recipients of divine possession (and we still do the same thing with the people who are essentially pretending to be epileptics i.e people who allegedly spoke in tongues).There was a time when mishaps and calamities in a close community was associated with the presence of a witch (which many villages in India still do, by the way). There was a time when we have tortured and put to death innocent women who were thought to be the witches perpetrating those mishaps and calamities through black magic. In the same way these days, though in a more low-key and politer fashion, we draw such erroneous conclusions from the behaviour and personal life of doctors; a class of people as mystical and unfathomable as epileptics and witches in the eye of modern society.

So, you may claim that a physician who smokes and drinks are in no moral position to advise a patient to stay away from the same vices. You can draw general arguments from idioms about leading from example or practicing what one preaches. All words, all philosophy. Not that I have anything against philosophy (which I have a pedestrian interest in by the way), but I'd prefer a more realistic approach to the question. And I will in turn deal with that with these questions of my own; what is a doctor, and how stupid are people, really?

A doctor is basically a fixer-upper you see whenever you are sick and needs fixing up. In the same way, you'd see a mechanic if your car's acting up and you'd call a plumber if your pipes are leaking. A doctor is service provider just like them. The big difference is, you respect and trust a doctor more than you trust the others because you are actually putting your life into his or her hand. Whether doctors, mechanics or plumbers smoke or drink, it does not in any way affect their ability to do their jobs (I'm not talking about drinking and being drunk at work here, of course - I'm merely referring to the habit). It was never in a doctor's job description to be the model of perfect health. Doctors are just human too like the rest of us. They can fall sick. They can get cancer. And they sure as heck can enjoy a good fag and nice cocktail if they want to in their free time after spending a whole day attending to your needs. Do you mistrust an oncologist who was diagnosed with cancer to effectively treat yours? Are the medications prescribed to you by a physician for your sore throat ineffective just because he or she had a sore throat before? Yes? No? No. Now tell me, why on earth a doctor who smokes or drinks can't advise you to quit the habits if it's in your best interest? Are you so stupid that you can't see a good advice when it's given, regardless of whether the person who gave it practices it or not? What if a murderer advices you not to commit murder?

Maybe, just maybe, people stupid enough to be confused by a good advice and a bad example should be allowed to do whatever they want to shorten their own lifespans. Their removal from the human gene pool cannot come fast enough, and will benefit our species in the long run.

I believe that the general public are not quite retarded enough to be misled into disregarding a medical advice just because the doctor who gave that advice does not adhere to it. It might be that the doctor in question aren't suffering from any underlying conditions which precludes his indulgence of cigarettes or alcohol. It might be because he just don't give a fuck. Patients are allowed the same freedom and autonomy over their own bodies - they can put whatever shit they feel like into themselves so long as they aren't breaking any laws. And just because a doctor doesn't smoke or drink is no guarantee that a patient will sheepfully follow suit. Likewise, when a patient has a mind to stick to his vices, he doesn't need a doctor who smokes and drinks - but who gave him the advice to quit them - to enable him. Substance addiction needs no excuses beyond itself.

"Well, so long he's not Cthulhu."

If I am undergoing a surgery of some sort, I might even prefer my surgeon to take a puff from a cigarette before he or she starts cutting into me. It's a widely-known medical fact that smoking increases a person's ability to concentrate. Heck, a doctor might even give better diagnoses after taking a drag from a fag, being able to focus better. If it can be conclusively and statistically proven that smoking doctors are better than non-smoking doctors, everyone will only want to be treated by doctors who smoke - role model and exemplary behaviour bullshit be damned.

Also, (I'm just speaking broadly here) a doctor who smokes and drinks would probably have better insight into the psyche of a patient who indulges in the same.

There are doctors and medical students sitting on their moral high horses who condemn other members of their fraternity for smoking and drinking, as though they are in some way better or that they have, through much difficulty, avoided or kicked the habits themselves. Balderdash. I'd wager that most, if not all of the people in this camp, have no personal inclination to smoke or drink to begin with. They are essentially denying other people what they themselves do not want. This is true hypocrisy. Being a doctor who smokes or drinks isn't.

I think that I have made my point pretty clear; the conjecture that a smoking, drinking doctor being a bad example to patients is utterly bogus. It's just something some people feel to be proper - much like how people feel that little girls should wear pink, chopsticks should be held on the right hand and Long Island Ice Tea should be served in a highball glass. That's right. It's simply a misplaced sense of propriety, and anyone deigning to impose a groundless practice of so-called medical etiquette grown from certain people's subjective opinion - mere feeling - about how doctors shouldn't smoke or drink onto others is a fascist. Don't be fascists, people. We medical students and doctors should practice more of that famous empathy we often boast so proudly about (not to mention that you'd be left feeling pret-ty stupid if a colleague of yours who smokes and drinks turns out to be a much better doctor than you'll ever be).

Before I conclude this, I just want to say that I personally abstain from smoking and think that no one should smoke either. And I seriously detest people who smokes in front of people who don't and gassing everyone with their second hand smoke - though I am too polite to point that out to some of my friends who did that. I do drink on occasion but never nearly enough to get intoxicated - I have a penchant for cocktails because I only drink for the taste, not for the high. I agree that doctors and medical students ought to know better than to smoke or overindulge in alcohol (the keyword here is "overindulge"; I researched a little bit into the health benefits of drinking moderately for a debate I participated in in a Community Medicine posting) but it's not our place to question their personal choices if those choices do not affect their ability to perform their duties. In fact, since doctors know best the myriad of diseases they are exposing themselves to by smoking or drinking, we should respect their decision to do so anyway, even if we cannot respect their judgment.

After all, they are making an informed decision, unlike everyone else.



P.S. And wearing a necktie won't make a doctor better at doing his job either. Like I said, we're too fond of giving values to things which are intrinsically worthless.



Knows what really matters,
k0k s3n w4i